Looking at Chinese culture as it is depicted in Bound Feet, Western Dress: A Memoir from the perspective of one raised in America in the late twentieth century, Yu-i’s experience of gender as a social construction may at first glance appear to be a wholly negative one. On the contrary, when examined with an awareness of the different lenses through which we view other cultures based on our own socialization, both the positive and negative experiences of gender in China provided by Yu-i’s story become clear. When contrasted with her experiences of gender in Britain, Yu-i’s experiences in China pale in comparison with regard to the strictly socialized gender roles she grows up with and the ramifications these roles have on the options provided her during her childhood and early marriage. While these experiences may carry with them an innate negative connotation for readers from America or other non-Asian ethnic backgrounds, it is important to note that they are not entirely without merit, as the knowledge of strict gender roles and the slightly progressive nature of her family provide Yu-i with a foundation upon which she later is able to build a new, more independent persona and explore the more loosely organized gender roles of other countries.
Bound Feet
The Chinese custom of foot binding is one that appears particularly heinous to modern readers, but is an experience that, upon closer inspection, provides Yu-i with a greater appreciation of her own unique situation as a Chinese woman who does not have bound feet, giving her a sense of liberation and freedom. Images of women’s feet as “three inches of smelly, rotting flesh” (Dworkin 1) often cause people to hastily dismiss foot binding as the barbaric practice of an uneducated people. They often do not take the time to examine foot binding, or what it afforded young women who grew up during the transition from binding as a common practice to an illegal one, such as Yu-i, in more detail.
From the tender young age of three, Yu-i’s foot-binding experience incites in her a continually developing tendency, as she puts it, to “Respect what I felt on the inside, no matter what showed on the outside” (Chang 14). During the three days her feet are bound, Yu-i’s mother places her in the kitchen, where she watches the meal preparations in an effort to take her mind from the pain. While discussing her memories of this experience, Yu-i tells Chang, “Only the day before, I had taken it all for granted, run across [that] very floor” (21). Yu-i realizes that she is not the typical traditional Chinese woman, and therefore should not have bound feet. Her foot binding experience is what develops this characteristic of remaining true to herself, which later motivates Yu-i to deviate even further from Chinese tradition and to embrace a more Western female identity by-from among numerous examples-remaining close to her in-laws after her divorce and by continuing to live abroad, functioning as a single mother and furthering her education.
Having experienced only three days of the agonizingly painful process of foot binding, Yu-i expresses great joy when the bindings are permanently removed. As she tells Chang, “My feet became my talisman, guiding me through a new, large, open world,” and she continues, commenting that, “The power of my feet shielded me from the jibes of my cousins; when they called me ‘little peasant girl,’ I teased them back and ran away as fast as I could” (22). Yu-i’s brief foray into the world of the bound foot gives her a context in which to cultivate an awareness about so common and desirable a tradition, as well as to understand and appreciate the incredible sacrifices of other Chinese women, such as her mother and older sister, who not only have endured the foot binding process for years, but have been crippled by it, unable to walk quickly or stroll in comfort. This is a context that would not have been presented to Yu-i had she never experienced the painful process of foot binding.
Turning her attention to the issue of education, Yu-i points out one of her more negative experiences of gender in China. During her interviews, Yu-i remarks to Chang:
I am not a learned woman. Look at my Chinese writing; you can see that it is not a scholarly hand… Being learned in Chinese is not like being learned in English. If I were learned, I would be able to write in classical Chinese, which is nothing like spoken Chinese… But I did learn simple things like how we had to obey the Three Bonds of Subordination… and respect the Five Reverent Tiers (48-49).
While the fact that she is allowed by her parents to gain a very rudimentary education by working marginally with her brothers’ tutor and attending for a time a school for women is indeed somewhat progressive for a Chinese family of this time period, Yu-i’s experience with education is not as positive as it may first appear.
Due to the emphasis placed on male children in Chinese culture, the education of female children at this time is simply a by-product of having the sons’ tutor around, or a luxury for extremely wealthy families. According to Yu-i, “No matter what our financial situation, Baba was determined that his sons’ education would not suffer” (45). She continues, saying that, “With the first money he made… Baba employed a tutor to live on the boat with the boys” (45). Education of the Chang sons is important to Yu-i’s father because it is education that will secure them government positions or other prestigious offices in order to bring honor to the family. In order for a daughter to bring honor to her family, she is required to be a good wife, both silent and obedient-a goal that is not attained through traditional education. While it is clear that Yu-i greatly values the opportunities she is afforded to learn, these opportunities are wrenched away from her when she is old enough to take what her family considers to be her proper role-marrying a wealthy, prestigious Chinese man, bearing sons and taking care of her in-laws. Thus Yu-i’s passion for learning is successfully quashed by the oppressive gender roles enforced by the Chinese society in which she lives when, at the tender age of fifteen, she is forbidden from returning to school in preparation for her marriage and life as a silent and obedient wife.
Western Dress
Despite the fact that Yu-i is thrown into a culture in which gender roles are more flexible than in China, her previous socialization prevents her from adapting to her new life in England. Describing her first few months in the West, Yu-i tells Chang that she spent a great deal of time in the apartment she and Hsu Chih-mo shared. As she comments, “I do not know why I did nothing except wait for Hsu Chih-mo. It did not even occur to me that I could have been independent” (Chang 105). In fact, it is this lack of deviation from traditional values when faced with experiences of gender in England that causes the situations that ultimately lead Yu-i to embrace Western culture and become a more independent, modern woman.
One of Yu-i’s more positive and empowering experiences in England-which sets her on the path towards becoming a more Westernized woman-occurs as a result of an unexpected pregnancy after she and her husband move to Sawston. Upon telling Hsu Chih-mo that she is pregnant, he instantly responds, “Get an abortion” (115). To Yu-i, this suggestion comes unexpectedly, considering that her very limited knowledge about abortion supports the idea that it is a practice used only in the direst situations in China and is extremely dangerous to both child and mother (115). The next day, Yu-i decides to talk to a neighboring Chinese woman about getting an abortion and discovers that in the West, knowing about abortion and birth control clinics is so common that the practice of abortion often seems to be little more than a cursory decision. Yu-i relates to Chang her memories of this conversation with Mrs. Hes and her reactions afterwards, saying:
Apparently an abortion seemed an easy enough decision for [Mrs. Hes]. How did she know all this information? I wondered… I did not understand. Our child was a gift from the gods to the Hsu family. Why would anyone want to destroy it? How could Hsu Chih-mo, the child’s father, be so callous? (116-117).
Clearly, Yu-i interprets the reactions of both her husband and Mrs. Hes to her pregnancy in a very traditional Chinese way, based on the ideals she was taught in childhood. Her continued adherence to these ideals is what continually drives Hsu Chih-mo farther away from Yu-i after she joins him in England. After meeting one of her husband’s friends-a nice young Chinese woman with Western clothing, makeup and bound feet-Yu-i remarks that, “Bound feet and Western dress do not go together,” after which Hsu Chih-mo loses his temper and screams, “I know that… That’s why I want a divorce!” (122).
Despite the fact that Yu-i has the option of going out, educating herself, or perhaps even working while living in England due to the more malleable gender roles in place there, she clings to her traditional Eastern Chinese identity. Even though she hopes to learn English while abroad with her husband, Yu-i complacently accepts her tutor’s decision to quit after only a few lessons and does not protest Hsu Chih-mo’s amiable attitude toward the situation. “Later,” she comments to Chang, “I wondered why I did not insist to Hsu Chih-mo that we continue the lessons” (112). Instead, Yu-i uses her newly found freedom of choice regarding her role as a woman, wife and mother to choose to be as traditional as she was in China. She spends her time cleaning the house, washing clothes, buying food and preparing meals.
Yu-i’s reaction to her early suspicions about her husband’s girlfriend is reflective of her traditional Chinese character as well. Rather than confronting Hsu Chih-mo, as a Western woman might, Yu-i remains silent and obedient, struggling internally to understand her husband’s actions. When Hsu Chih-mo decides to bring one of his female friends home for dinner, Yu-i spends the day preparing food and pondering why her husband would keep his girlfriend-or girlfriends-from her. “He could have simply announced her to me and had me accept her: that would have been the Chinese way,” she tells Chang (119). Still stuck in the same mindset, Yu-i does not realize that her husband might have friends who are women or might not want to have additional concubines, but might rather divorce Yu-i and marry a woman he falls in love with instead.
Hsu Chih-mo’s frustration with Yu-i’s traditional ways finally becomes so great that he abandons her in Sawston-ironically providing her with just the stimulus she needs to begin transitioning between her traditional values and more modern ones. The extent to which Yu-i’s husband considers her to be backwards and uneducated is most evident when he comes out to the balcony of their cottage after raising his voice to her for the first time since they were married. As Yu-i tells Chang, “Hsu Chih-mo thought me so old-fashioned, he worried I would hurl myself over the porch railing!” (122). It was a week after this incident that Hsu Chih-mo mysteriously disappeared, leaving his pregnant wife not only to fend for herself in England without the benefit of knowing the English language, but to decide whether or not to carry their child to term as well. After living alone for over a week, Yu-i writes a letter to one of her brothers asking for his advice and then makes one of the most modern decisions of her life: she decides to leave Sawston and move to Paris with her brother. Yu-i describes her feelings about her decision-her fear-to Chang, saying:
With that, I left Sawston one fall morning, closing the door behind me and carrying as much as I could down the dusty street to the Sawston station. I just quit the house as Hsu Chih-mo himself had (127).
Shortly after leaving the house, which she is traveling to Paris, Yu-i is empowered by her own actions and decides to disobey “Hsu Chih-mo for the first time in [her] life,” by keeping their child and raising him or her without her husband’s help. Finally, Yu-i begins to examine in detail her reasons for playing the role of good wife and recognizes unhappiness she suffers through the sacrifices she makes for others. After Hsu Chih-mo abandons his wife in Sawston, ignoring his responsibilities to his family, Yu-i decides to stand up for herself. She tells Chang, “If he was going to desert me in such a fashion, why should I be the good wife and obey his request[s]?” (130). Yu-i is determined not to abandon her child the way she was abandoned by her husband (130).
Slowly, as time passes after Yu-i and Hsu Chih-mo’s abrupt separation and later divorce, Yu-i takes steps to further her own education and live independently as a single mother. Having remembered her childhood lessons on dignity, she tells Chang, “I determined to stay in Europe and try to raise my child on my own” (136). She decides to continue to accept money from her husband’s parents in order to support her child until she can earn a living on her own, and she moves to Berlin, making an effort to educate herself. Had Hsu Chih-mo and Yu-i been as restricted in England by gender roles as they were in China, Hsu Chih-mo would not be able to so easily abandon his role as husband and father, leaving, and later divorcing, Yu-i. Without these experiences, she might never have been given the opportunity to break free of her place as a woman in Chinese culture, to experience a self-sustained, happy, rich lifestyle, and would have forever remained “bound feet.”
Bibliography
Chang, Pang-Mei Natasha. Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir. Anchor Books: New York, 1996.
Dworkin, Andrea. “Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics.” Women’s Studies 201 Handout. 1975.
